The invention concerns equipment for placing an implant.
The equipment is intended in particular, but not exclusively, for placing an intersomatic cage, a femoral nail, a rachidian pedicle screw, a disc prosthesis or a rachidian osteosynthesis plate.
In a manner that is conventional per se, the equipments used for placing an implant comprises a threaded part able to cooperate with a tapped part provided in the implant. Patent applications WO 96/22747 and FR 2668360 describe such equipments. Thus mounting the implant on the equipment generally takes place by engaging, by screwing, the threaded part in the tapped bore of the implant. Once the implant is positioned in the planned location, the installation equipment (or placement equipment) is released from the implant by unscrewing the threaded part from the tapped part.
Such equipments do not however allow rapid mounting and demounting of the implant because of the screwing and unscrewing operations.
A second drawback is that locking by means of a threaded part makes it necessary, once the implant is placed, to remove the equipment in order to continue the surgical intervention.
Implant installation equipments are also known, comprising a tubular body provided with two arms having ends for attaching the implant. In this type of equipment, the locking of the implant on the arms is provided by means of an external locking tube, said tube being positioned on the equipment by movement along the external face of the tubular body.
This type of equipment does however has several drawbacks.
A first drawback is that the locking equipment used is not suitable for single-use installation equipment. The arms of the single-use equipment are in fact more fragile through the nature of the material from which the equipment is produced. However, locking the implant by placing a locking piece around the arms accentuates this fragility.
A second drawback is that, apart from the fragility that it confers on the equipment, the presence of a piece external to the tubular body of the equipment leads to relatively bulky equipment.
Another drawback is that locking by means of an external piece is suitable only for an instrument with a straight shape. It cannot be used with equipment of complex shape, which limits the field of application.